It is August in Washington: hot and humid and the air shivers when you look through it, a little like gelatin. Time was when sensible people were at the Shore to cool off, at Rehoboth, Ocean City or Virginia Beach. Since the invention of air conditioning and year-round government though, there is the pleasant fiction […]

Admiral McConnell’s people had a big conference two weeks ago at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. It was about open-source intelligence, which is that information that is laying around for free, no Spooks or satellites required. They say that almost a thousand professionals attended, and I wish I had. There are some […]

The slap echoed across the pool deck like the report of a small caliber pistol. It was startling. I was in the water, relishing the coolness against my skin. I looked up to see Mrs. Hitler on her feet in outrage, looking down at Uncle Bill with eyes that bulged in anger. I have seen […]

Registered letters are real attention-getters, or at least they are once you have received one. That is what they call “experience,” which is actually the culmination of a lot of mistakes. It enables you to know when you are making one again. They look so official, what with the green sticker and the stamps all […]

Gray at Big Pink, on the interface of night and day. Maybe rain, maybe not. Humid again. I entered the day twice. I had taken the Harry Potter book to bed early, intending to read, but did not. Instead, the dreams came and they were unusually vivid. In the first, I was in a squad […]

Mr. Wonderful England is under water, drowning, and people I know are testifying before Congress. I am hearing about both on the radio this morning. Both are scary events, the former signifying a link to the great climate change, and the latter to some more subtle discomfort right here in town. It is time to […]

Pentagon Wedge, Down to Bare Bones I am done with the Cassandra thing this morning, so you won’t have to put up with it.    It is clear enough, and there is no reason to continue to flog the horse. Something is going to happen, and we all seem to know at least in general […]

Mark Twain once observed that: “There are lies, damned lies and statistics.” He is my favorite of the native writers, a genuine original who keenly observed what was going on around him. He was as comfortable in his American skin as it is possible to be, and he used his acerbic pen to skewer the […]

The Second Witch in Macbeth looks up in scene one of Act VI, peering out at the audience of groundlings. She   says: “By the pricking on my finger, Something wicked this way comes.” I feel my thumbs positively aching this morning. It is a splendid day at Big Pink, and maybe that is part of […]

I made my usual call to the folks late on Sunday. It had been a magnificent day at poolside at Big Pink, and the prospect of what is going to come to pass later this year was easy enough to put aside. I read a few hundred pages of the last Harry Potter book, and […]