I’ll meet you at the slop chute on the old Whangpoo Bring along your dip net; there’ll be enough for two There’ll be beans and carrots and some Irish stew I’ll meet you at the slop chute on the old Whangpoo!     – Anthem of the “River Rats” of the Yangtze River Patrol, sung to the […]

I woke this morning from the running dream. I don’t know what your version of it might be. Mine normally starts in some perfectly ordinary social situation, as something vast begins to unfold. Sometimes it is a natural disaster presaging the release of terrible ogres; sometimes they are from the earth, and sometimes they are […]

Former Trees at Buckingham I I want to thank my long-suffering readers. It is time to diverge from the Novel In November Project, and back to business. The Big Pink book has some possibilities, though I will treat that as a separate matter from here out. Generating 50,000 words on the same general topic is […]

Gentle readers, I know it is actually Armistice Day, though the story is of a summer past. This momentous anniversary is now celebrated as Veteran’s Day here in the United States, though remembered for what it was in Europe still. I was awake early enough to note the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of […]

Big Pink Flank I feel queasy this morning. General-President “Mushie” Musharef of Pakistan has made his choice, and declared martial law. His security forces have detained around five hundred opposition members. He has knocked the media off the air, the Constitution has been suspended, and a policy of zero tolerance for protest is in effect. […]

From the Arlington Star, 1980: Majority of Arlington’s Buckingham Sold to Condominium Developer By Carolyn Springs, Staff Writer BUCKINGHAM- Most of one of Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest community in Arlington has been put on the block and sold to a Windy City real estate developer who specializes in condominium conversions. The sale was announced […]

Fairlington Condos Rumors Swirl at Buckingham From the Arlington Star, November 1979: BUCKINGHAM- Rumors are swirling about impending redevelopment of this sprawling garden apartment community by the Kinghoffer Corporation, of Columbus, Ohio. Residents fear imminent eviction from the garden apartments, which are located on choice pieces of land close to Washington and the burgeoning Metro […]

“Buckeye” Kinghoffer From the Arlington Star, November 1979: Colonial Village, Buckingham, Big Pink, Hyde Park, Claremont. Within the last six months,   five major Arlington County apartment complexes have been sold to out-of-state buyers. The sales affect as many as 10,000 tenants, many of them elderly or recently arrived ethnic minorities who live on low to […]

It is a strange morning, and it is not about the great events in the wide world. It is about one man who had no opinions about any of it, at least in a public manner. For a public figure, he was quite private. The word is that the twenty-four year old Free Safety of […]

Photo copyright Washington Post 1975 Big Changes Coming At Buckingham Frances and Larry Kettell are in the office on the second floor office in the Buckingham Shopping Center. Frances is a woman of a certain age with an aura of authority, and a fashionable frock. Kettell is a burly man who has worked outdoors all […]